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Cold hardiness, as seen in late winter

The grass has started growing and the crocus are almost but not quite blooming, which means it’s late winter, even though we are technically just starting the middle third of winter.

We had a particularly low cold snap (18 degrees) in November, and most of the brasicas froze out. The Gigante Kohlrabi seems to be the hardiest, even more so than the regular kale; we have one ultra-tough kale (both texture and resilience) that has done fine, though, and cilantro is not bothered. An interesting and unusual green, Sculpit, looks better now than it did in the summer, it apparently loves the cold damp weather and adds welcome green. Sorrel also would be doing fine except for the chickens. Carrots were sadly damaged by the frost, the parsnips are fine, and we haven’t ventured a beet lately.

The Muna peppers (Mucho Nacho dehybridization/cold-tolerant pepper project) in the unheated greenhouse are looking rough, but it didn’t get as cold as last year, so there are green (if ratty-looking) leaves, and new peppers are showing. The senior (full blood) Mucho Nacho will be four years old in a few months. The impressive survival was the Great Cold Snap of ’13, when it got down to zero degrees here. I did run the small heater in the greenhouse, but there still light frost inside; the peppers died back to sticks, but they respouted come spring.

In the greenhouse, the holy basil has some green leaves left on it; that would never happen with real basil.

An a couple of trays of lettuce, brassicas and onions are starting to get their first real leaves.